5/5/16

I thought I'd get done transfering 2003 thru 2011 from iWeb to blogger while snow birding this winter ... I also thought we'd have time to change all our home movies into digital files.

And silly me, I even believed I'd get all our slides made into jpegs.

This is what my home page looked like in the winter of 2011.

Some things never change.

The problem is, you think you have all the time in the world.

Facebook reminded me yesterday that I posted what follows these screen shots on May 4, 2011; the day "we got" Osama Bin Laden. Five years later, I stand by the above writings and what follows ~

May 4, 2011

Good & Evil

Dear Max & Lilly,

This one is going to be extremely hard for me to explain.

When God created the first male and female ~ Adam and Eve ~ he gave them a beautiful garden to call their home. Can you imagine that? Your parents work really really hard to care and provide for you and it doesn’t leave much time for lollygagging around in the cool evening shade. Yet that is all Adam and Eve had to do. Well that, and name ALL the animals, procreate (ask your parents what that means) and not play God.

But alas, they couldn’t keep their pride in check and now we have good guys and bad guys.

Us Americans are a prideful people, and pride is a sin. We are supposed to humble ourselves before God and others, NOT puff ourselves up. Jesus said this, in the book of Matthew:

"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemies.' But I say to you, love your enemies. Pray for those who hurt you. If you do this, you will be true children of your Father in heaven. He causes the sun to rise on good people and on evil people, and he sends rain to those who do right and to those who do wrong. If you love only the people who love you, you will get no reward. Even the tax collectors do that. And if you are nice only to your friends, you are no better than other people. Even those who don't know God are nice to their friends. So you must be good, just as your Father in heaven is good.”

If we would only study the Bible and realize that pride comes before a fall, I’m not too sure we would be celebrating what’s gone down the last couple of days.

Every since 9.11.01 (and even as far back as the civil war) the United States has always been pretty full of themselves. Men fighting against other men, pursuing man-made ideologies and ignoring God’s ways, all in the name of USA, USA, USA.

So late Sunday night, I was upstairs in the home where we raised your parents. Since we live at Great Grandpa & Grandma’s farm most of the time, we’ve cut the cable cord and can only get 3 TV stations. Max, you and your parents were downstairs ... you had long since been asleep when your mom came upstairs to tell me that the United States had captured and killed Osama Bin Laden (the bad guy - don’t worry, by the time you read this you’ll have studied this in history class).

The blogs, facebook, and nearly everyone who calls USA home, erupted in chants and celebrations. About half the country wants to make our president the king. The other half wants to claim their president did all the groundwork and therefore he should get some of the accolades. (you’ll get to learn all about the way politics run this country in civics class, too. Lucky you.)

What would Jesus do?

I’ll tell you what he would NOT do. He would NOT celebrate a human being, whom he created, slipping from this world into the next without accepting his gift of salvation. He wants ALL to come to the Father. He created us ALL, even the bad guys. We make choices. He did not demand that Adam and Eve love him. He gave Adam and Eve free will so they could WANT to love him. That’s how much he loves us.

And so I can’t bring myself to cheer and promote either agenda. I am so so sad for all the people and their families who lost loved ones in the tumbling towers. The guys that stormed the cockpit on Flight 11 will always be heros in my eyes ... in my heart, I pray they were believers.

And in a strange awkward kind of way I feel a strong sadness for the 22 men that lost their lives in Sunday nights Middle East gun battle.

Your Aunt Melissa’s boyfriend (Spencer post coming soon) said what I wanted to say on his facebook wall ~ I love justice but I won't celebrate killing people. ever. I love life and life to the full. God bless America.

And I might add to that ... God has already blessed America. Now it is our turn to bless the world with the message of the Gospel, and that includes the bad guys.

Thanks for stopping by today ... if you need me I'll be here transferring archives, taking a couple more laps around the trailer park, and fixin' to eat Mother's Day brunch somewhere along the Gulf of Mexico. Northbound within the week.